


I've got my ticket for the long way 'round

by blue_eyed



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5596798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_eyed/pseuds/blue_eyed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some snippets of Rey on Jakku</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've got my ticket for the long way 'round

Her feet hurt. She can’t stop though, she’s so close to getting her food for the day, and if she stops she’s not sure if she’ll get back up.

Stopping sounds like luxury. She doesn’t have those anymore.

The other scavengers don't look at her, for the most part. Occasionally she gets newcomers who want to take advantage of her youth and steal from her, but they never stay on the planet long. Why would they?

She looks to the sky, habitually. The sun-bleached sky remains empty.

Rey gets a whole portion - it’s her lucky day. She eats it sitting down, shoes off to try and take the swelling of her feet down. The sky remains empty, even when it fills with stars. 

Before she goes to sleep, she climbs onto a table, and scratches a line, high on the wall. Another day over.

~~~

“What can I do for you, serious one?” Caftoss asks her. 

“My name is Rey,” she replies instinctively, before shaking her head. “I found something. Can you help me?”

Caftoss was the first Uthuthma she had met, and the only person she felt trustworthy. Anyone else would steal her find.

She leads Caftoss to the wreckage she was using as a hiding place. Not her AT-AT. No one knew about that, as far as she knew, but another one she could use in a pinch. 

“A Speeder?” Caftoss moves around the machine, tapping the metal in places. 

“Yes,” she says. “I think it works?”

“Well, hop on.”

Rey takes a breath, and clambers into the seat. Her feet barely scrape the floor. She reaches for the controls. 

“This one to go, this one to stop. Steer with the handles. Them’s the basics.”

Rey nods. “What about this?”

“Lets see you handle go and stop first.” Caftoss steps back. “Maybe corners, if you’re good.”

She almost tips it the first time she tries a turn. 

“Yeah, you’ll need to practice.” Caftoss says, handing her some water. “You’ll get there.”

~~~

Rey turns the engine over. It splutters and dies. She swallows, feeling her eyes burn with tears. She wipes them away angrily, and tries again.

She pulls the panel off the side, and bangs the side until the sand clears. Rey has learned a lot about electronics of vehicles since coming to Jakku, but she’s never looked at it with an eye to fix anything. Only to strip away the best parts. 

She starts pulling parts out, carefully, laying them out on a blanket. 

She asks Caftoss to come and inspect her work when she’s done. She’s pretty sure she’s done it right, but the speeder has changed her life; she doesn’t want to risk breaking it entirely.

“You fixed this?” Caftoss asked her.

“Yes. Is it correct?”

“Oh it’s correct. I think you’ve got a talent here.”

Rey shakes her head. “I just picked it up scavenging. I know what bits are important, and what they connect to. It follows from there.”

“Not for everyone, serious one.”

Rey shrugs. It makes sense to her.

~~~

Caftoss gives her more things to fix. Radios, communicators, even a simple droid once, that was passing through. 

Rey likes fixing things, more than scavenging them. Caftoss tells her to leave Jakku, make her way as an engineer in the galaxy. Make a life for herself.

Rey shakes her head. Her family will be coming back for her. 

Caftoss says nothing, but gives her water. 

~~~

She no longer has to stand on a table to draw the lines of her days. 

~~~

She dreams of water. A huge expanse; more water than she can ever remember seeing. She’s flying, low and fast, over islands dotted in the blue water.

Everytime she has this dream, she heads to a specific island. She lands at shoreline, and cliff stretches up above her. She needs to get to the top. She’s not sure what’s there, but she’s sure she needs it, just as she’s sure she needs to eat and drink. 

She always wakes up before she reaches the top, tired before she’s even done anything.

Rey doesn’t think about the ocean during the day.

~~~

Her next find is a staff. 

Under the relative cool and dark of the night, she practises swinging it, holding the weight in her hands. 

She remembers footage of battles with great blades of light; supposedly Jedi weapons. She pretends her staff is flame, and arcs it through the still air. 

Calluses start to form on her hands as she uses the staff for walking, moving things, and fighting. 

It makes her feel strong, especially when she gets leering looks at her body turns from girl to woman. The men don't come near her, and those that do, feel her staff. She holds her head high.

Unkar Platt watches her from his hut. She meets his eyes as she passes him parts.

~~~

Ships come and go. Rey always checks them out, in case one belongs to her family. She can only just remember what the ship looks like, but she’s pretty sure she will know it when she sees it. 

X-wing fighters are unusual, and when she sees it flying low towards the Kelvin Ravine, she takes notice. 

“The resistance,” a passing trader says.

“The resistance,” Rey murmurs in agreement. She wonders if the fight is coming to Jakku.


End file.
